Bob is a 40-year veteran (yes, he is grizzled) who edited one Pulitzer Prize winner and wrote two that were nominated. He has also worked in Des Moines, Colorado Springs and Palo Alto. He writes about the suburbs, the environment, housing, religion -- anything but politics. Secret pleasures: Kayaking on the Mississippi on the way to work, doughnuts brought in by someone else. Best office prank: Piling more papers onto Fred Melo’s already trash-covered desk.

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The two top priorities for LGBTQ rights advocates didn't make it. For both a ban on so-called gay "conversion therapy" and a measure to allow two married women have the same parental rights as a man-woman married couple failed to gain enough support in the Republican-majority Senate to reach the desk of Gov. Tim Walz. CONVERSION THERAPY Gay rights advocates...

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A bid to fully ban wolf hunting in Minnesota appears to have fallen short of reaching the desk of Gov. Tim Walz, who had indicated he likely would have signed it. The development became clear Wednesday and Thursday, when state lawmakers from both parties presented a compromise agreement on natural resources and environmental policy that left out the ban, which...